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Things haven’t been easy for Arash Sigarchi. At the age of 27, he was sent to prison for writing articles criticizing the leader of the Islamic Republic and aspects of life in Iran. He was first sentenced to 14 years, charged with "insulting Mr. Khamenei in his writings, collaboration with hostile governments, giving interviews to foreign media, and incitement of the public mind." His sentence was subsequently commuted to 3 years, of which he has served 14 months. During his time in prison, he found a lump in his mouth. It was cancer. He underwent an operation to excise the tumor as a result of which he lost part of his tongue.
Sigarchi began his career in journalism when he was just 15 years old. A native of the Gilan province of northern Iran, he gained acclaim for his work as editor of Gilan Emrooz, the province’s major newspaper. When he was no longer able to publish the kind of stories he wanted to in the paper, he decided to start a blog called Panjereh Eltehab, which means “window of anxiety.” For his courage and dedication in the field of journalism in Iran, Arash Sigarchi received the Hellman/Hammett award in 2007.
(from IJNet interview)

Cancer treatment

My Wife and my Cousin , After my big surgery

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Revolutionary Guards Expand Defense Plans

Activation of “Passive Defense” in Sensitive Areas

‎

Gholamreza Jalali, the head of Islamic Republic’s Passive Defense Council said, “By the ‎end of the year, passive defense mechanism would be activated in all provinces and ‎sensitive areas in the country.” ‎

Following this news and Jalali’s remarks, the National Passive Defense Council’s news ‎office added, “The Majlis tasked the government to cover vulnerabilities in the country’s ‎infrastructure (in face of a potential military strike against Iran) in the Fourth ‎Development Plan and we have devised guidelines based on that. According to these ‎guidelines, a deputy is assigned in every executive organization as that organization’s ‎passive defense representative. In all executive organizations the requisite planning in ‎this regard has been implemented.” ‎

In military language, Passive Defense is referred to the totality of structural and ‎infrastructural measures taken to minimize damage from a potential enemy attack and ‎reduce the enemy’s precision and targeting capabilities, thus imposing higher costs on the ‎enemy. As such, factors such as concealment, camouflage, deception, division, ‎dispersion and protection are emphasized in passive defense. ‎

Passive Defense has become among the Islamic Republic’s defense plans, and according ‎to the head of the National Passive Defense Council, “The council’s first priority is to ‎disperse passive defense capabilities in the provinces.” He added, “We hope to activate ‎passive defense measures in all of the country’s provinces and sensitive areas by the end ‎of the year.” ‎

Noting the reduction in damages from a potential military attack, Jalali stressed that ‎‎“research and the implementation of programs aimed at reducing organizational ‎vulnerabilities” and while cautioning the necessity of defending such targets as nuclear ‎centers, radio and television, the Interior Ministry, provinces, Ministry of Energy, ‎Ministry of oil, Ministry of Communications and the central bank, said, “210 projects ‎have been briefed for these organizations. We also have good plans for safeguarding ‎nuclear facilities.”‎

According to the head of the National Passive Defense Council, thus far “170 billion ‎Tomans” have been set aside for such programs and “with the president’s cooperation, ‎plans are under way to dedicate 5 percent of provincial budgets to protect the ‎infrastructure of each province.” ‎